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Chika Sakamoto

Japanese voice actress (born 1959) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chika Sakamoto (坂本 千夏, Sakamoto Chika; born August 17, 1959[2]) is a Japanese voice actress who is affiliated with Arts Vision.[4] She grew up in Kawasaki City and Totsuka Ward in Yokohama.[2]

Born
Chika Ishihara (石原 千夏)[1] (née Sakamoto (坂本))[2]

(1959-08-17) August 17, 1959 (age 66)
Tokyo, Japan
OthernameChikabō[3]
OccupationVoice actress
Yearsactive1981–present
Quick facts Born, Other name ...
Chika Sakamoto
坂本 千夏
Born
Chika Ishihara (石原 千夏)[1] (née Sakamoto (坂本))[2]

(1959-08-17) August 17, 1959 (age 66)
Tokyo, Japan
Other nameChikabō[3]
OccupationVoice actress
Years active1981–present
AgentArts Vision
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Biography

Early life

Sakamoto was born on August 17, 1959 in Tokyo, Japan. She was a bright child who by the age of two could read and memorize her grandmother's phone number.[3] In kindergarten, she moved to Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture and moved to Totsuka Ward, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture in middle school.[2]

In fourth grade, she performed Kiyoko Suizenji's "Ippon Dokko no Uta" at a relative's wedding held in Ibaraki Prefecture.[3] She was given Japanese yen as a thank you for the performance, which made her realize, "Oh, you can get paid just for singing? That's nice" and she has been hooked on singing ever since.[3]

She was a self-described television addict growing up, and during her high school years she often stayed up watching live programming late into the night. This made her a habitual latecomer, and she was famously rarely on time for school. Ironically, her morning routine also included watching the preschool anime series Play with Mom! Pin Pon Pan, a show aimed at a much younger audience.[5]

The highlight of her time at school was chapel time, as she would use it to practice her singing, focusing on the melody for the first verse of a hymn and on the harmony for the second.[5]

She was a graduate of Soshin Jogakko Junior and Senior High School.[2][3][5] Ever since she attended school as a student, she was interested in voice acting and singing,[6] even taking vocal lessons at Yamaha's Vocal Mates during high school. Besides that, she joined the Yokohama Folk Village and would practice with her band.[2]

As a high school student, she entered the Yamaha Popular Song Contest with a band she had founded with a group of friends and won the Outstanding Song Award.[7]

During her high school years, everyone would tell her "you have a weird voice".[2] To make the most of her "weird voice", she thought "maybe you should study acting", and started taking up acting.[2] She loved anime and thought, "I'd love to try doing a voice like that."[2] Since she had been taking lessons in singing, she thought it would be "the ultimate dream" if she could do voice acting and also perform the theme song.[2]

Once Sakamoto graduated from high school, she wanted to start working as a voice actress, so contacted a friend who was a fan of voice actors to receive advice.[2] She was asked "isn't there anything else you'd like to do?", to which she replied, "I think I might want to become a kindergarten teacher", and was then told, "well then, become a kindergarten teacher."[2] Figuring she had to study, she thought "Since you end up joining a theater company anyway even if you join a university drama club, wouldn't it be better to go straight to a training school?",[2] so planned on going to Waseda University through a recommendation and "study theater" there, but her homeroom teacher shot the idea down, telling her, "with as many times as you've been late, there's no way."[5]

Career

After graduating from high school, she aspired to become an actress[7] and joined the Theater Echo training institute after being inspired watching a performance of theirs.[6][8] She chose Theater Echo because voice actors such as Kazuo Kumakura, Yasuo Yamada, and Ryūji Saikachi were a part of it at the time.[2] After spending two years at the training institute, she planned on becoming a research student, but quit by force due to not finding acting very interesting and issues with market demand.[6][8] Her first play was an absurdist work where she wound up putting no emotions into her lines.[8] Some of her classmates at the training institute were Masako Katsuki and Kiyomi Hanasaki,[3][8] with Mayumi Tanaka and Mari Yokoo being one year ahead of her.[8]

She graduated from the training school and transferred to the Tokyo Actor's Consumer's Cooperative Society because of her strong desire to pursue a voice acting career.[2] She then ended up joining Arts Vision at the time it founded.[9] Sakamoto had also been formerly affiliated with Shinkikaku.[6]

In 1981, she made her debut as a voice actress, with her first voice acting role performing the line "ah, it's Tetsujin!" in The New Adventures of Gigantor.[10] Later, in 1982, she passed the audition for the title character of Fuku-chan in the anime Fuku-chan, landing her first lead role.[2]

From October 1983 to March 1985, she served as the third main personality for the Animetopia radio program alongside Miki Takahashi.[11] In 1983, she formed a group called "Kiran Gekijo" with friends and held performances twice a year[7] and in 1984, formed a group known as "Potato Power" with Kiyomi Hanasaki and Akari Hibino, with the three of them holding concerts.[12][13][14]

In 1989, Sakamoto was part of the GALLOP group with Kazue Ikura and Chie Kōjiro.[15][16]

Current activity

In 2011, after a 20 year hiatus, GALLOP held a comeback concert, with Sakamoto, Ikura, and Kōjiro reuniting. Since then, the group has been active once every two years.[17]

In October 2024, she, Kōichi Yamadera, Yuki Kaji, Ryūsei Nakao, Mika Kanai, and other prominent voice actors formed the "No More Unauthorized Generative AI" group to oppose AI-generated voices and videos created without consent.[18] A series of videos featuring voice actors speaking their thoughts out on the usage of generative AI were released on October 21 as part of the campaign.[19]

Filmography

Television animation

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

ONA

OVA

Theatrical animation

Video games

Tokusatsu

Dubbing

Live-action

Animation

References

External links

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